According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), 1904 new off-peak cars were registered last year – up from 807 in 2015 and 203 in 2014.
The trend comes on the back of a dwindling off-peak car population. As at Dec 31, there were 22,562 such cars here, down from 30,469 and 38,146 in the same period in 2015 and 2014 respectively.
The LTA was unable to say what caused the spurt in off-peak car sales last year, but motor industry players suspect private-hire operators may have started adding these red-plated cars – which attract less tax but can be driven only during off-peak hours – to their ballooning fleets.
Related story: Rental car numbers surge fuelled by private-hire players
Related story: Lawyers say tougher to claim against private-hire cars
